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India Today

New Delhi August 3, 2018

ISSUE DATE: August 13, 2018

UPDATED: August 3, 2018 18:50 IST

Indian Money in Swiss Banks

Swiss bank accounts have become something of a political football, with news last month of an increase in deposits by Indians in 2017 from the previous year, followed by fresh data brandished by interim finance minister Piyush Goyal to show that actually deposits were significantly lower than levels reported in 2013. Both the government and its opposition were exaggerating different sets of data to make political points. But Swiss bank deposits by Indians­-not all of which is black money, as Arun Jaitley (for whom Goyal is substituting) pointed out-make up only a tiny fraction of the money held by Indian citizens in foreign bank accounts. Is the focus on Switzerland misleading? Data from 2015 showed that the majority of Indian money held offshore was in Asian tax havens. And the Swiss data cited by Goyal shows that Indians have more money in France, Australia, Ireland and even the Philippines than in Switzerland.

Illustration by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY

Ties That Bind

At the Indo-Pacific Business Forum in Washington DC on July 30, the United States confirmed it had conferred India with the Strategic Trade Authorisation 1 (STA-1) designation, enabling access to, among other things, sensitive weapons technology. The move, said Navtej Sarna, Indian ambassador to the US, was inevitable once India had been elevated to defence partner status in 2016. "It is a sign of trust," Sarna said, and "testifies to our excellent record in maintaining non-proliferation of these technologies." Both countries will have '2+2' trade talks in September. While the bulk of India's spending on defence is on Russia-made equipment, the US has over the last decade become a leading supplier. As China increases strategic investments in the neighbourhood, the US will see India as a critical counterbalance and vice versa.

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